“I desire what is good. Therefore, everyone who does not agree with me is a traitor.”

King George III .

“That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved.” Benjamin Franklin, letter to Benjamin Vaughan, March 14, 1785

“As many of you know, it has been reported that President Obama has signed an order authorizing the assassination of [American Citizen] al-Awlaki… ..no one argues that a President doesn’t have the right to issue such an order.“Senator Joe Lieberman, 5/6/10[2].

Imagine you are sitting home on a quiet Sunday afternoon in conversation with your beloved spouse. Suddenly your husband slumps over, blood draining from his head as a sniper’s bullet shatters your living room window. Your husband has just been assassinated by a government agent and it is later discovered — after ten years of painful inquiries carried out under the threat of your own assassination — that your husband was targeted as an enemy combatant and a terrorist. Just as easily, you and your entire family could have been killed in a home invasion in an attempt to cart off your husband for weeks of torture and lifetime detention or execution in an unknown Federal facility. Your investigation might also reveal that your loved one was targeted mistakenly by a bureaucrat or was a political enemy of officials in the government or their corporate allies.

Thus could be the very near future for American citizens if President Obama, Senator Joe Lieberman and people like Mayor Rudy Giuliani get their way. Lieberman (with Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) and Congressmen Jason Altmire (D-PA) and Charlie Dent (R-PA)) introduced the “Terrorist Expatriation Act[2]” last week. The act would strip “terrorists” of their American citizenship and is in response to the recent attempted bombing of Times Square by an American Citizen — a former Pakistani granted this privilege in 2009 (Faisal Shahzad). It would make it very convenient to torture and kill any person that is viewed unfavorably by the powerful and arrogant elite sitting in Washington D.C. today. In fact, the New York Times reports that the President has authorized the assassination of American Citizen Anwar al-Awlaki[3] who was born in New Mexico and now is reportedly plotting against America from Yemen.

[4]

On ABC’s “This Week” (5/9/10), Mayor Rudy Giuliani permanently lost my support when he advocated removing Miranda Rights from American Citizens who are “terrorists”. ” I would have instead declared him an enemy combatant[5]” says Giuliani of the naturalized American Citizen arrested and accused by the State; an American Citizen who has not even had a 5th amendment right to a trial to ensure he is not actually wrongly accused. Who else would Giuliani, Obama or George Bush declare an “Enemy Combatant”? Would they quietly kill them in the field after a period of torture? Given the categorization of anyone with a Ron Paul or “Don’t Tread on Me” bumper sticker as a potential danger to the state[6] and the Department of Homeland Security[7] report on “Right Wing Extremism[8]“, just who does the government think a “terrorist” is?

The US constitution and American case law is rich language in defense of individual liberty against the tyranny of rulers. “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury……..nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” (Amendment 5 – 12/15/1791.) In Coffin vs.United States, 1895, the US Supreme court ruled: “The principle that there is a presumption of innocence in favor of the accused is the undoubted law, axiomatic and elementary, and its enforcement lies at the foundation of the administration of our criminal law.” The “Presumption of innocence” has a long tradition in English common law which is the basis for American law. Thus, Sir William Blackstone wrote the words latter echoed by Benjamin Franklin: “For the law holds, that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.” (Commentaries on the Laws of England, 9th ed., book 4, chapter 27, p. 358). The practical demonstration of a presumption of innocence is present in the burden of proof in criminal cases required for conviction: a person must be proven guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt”, the highest possible standard.

America is headed down a dangerous road of collectivist culture[9] and rights of the state over the rights of man. The government is always looking for an excuse to take more power from individual citizens and the failed car bombing of Times Square is the latest crisis that will be used to justify usurpation of rights from citizens. The danger in removing due process rights is not in allowing the guilty to go free, it is in the wrongful persecution and summary executions of innocent Americans. In this way, innocent Americans can be targeted by a non-thinking and mistake-prone government bureaucracy or the tyrannical actions of a dictator who will not tolerate any challenge to their authority.

It is the supremacy of the Rule of Law over the abomination of the Rule of Man that was a main inspiration for the overthrow of the tyrannical monarchy of George the III by America’s founders. We should not gladly embrace more tyranny by Lieberman, Obama, Giuliani and Scott Brown by trading our freedom for “security”. As Benjamin Franklin reminded us on that account, we will lose both and deserve neither.

When the precious privilege of being an American Citizen is held in contempt by our elected officials, it is time to peacefully remove those officials and replace them with those who would restore government to its sole function: protecting the individual liberty of American Citizens.
I have committed myself to the following oath, and hope that you will take it with me.

“I pledge to fight every day for individual freedom. I embrace peace and reject violence to achieve freedom. I demand limited government, free markets and individual liberty in America. I will keep my children free by ending programs that put them in debt. I refuse to take from others what I can produce for myself — and I will provide charity when I choose. I will work to elect people that will cut spending and taxes and restore government to the limits of the US Constitution. I will hold the government accountable to the constitution through action in the courts. I will pass the spirit of freedom to future generations.”